As can be seen travelling through the country and from our farmer profiles, there is very little grazing going on bar that being done by sheep.

Some farmers have managed to hold weanlings out, but another week or so will really test these farms from a ground condition and farm cover point of view.

It is now a good time to review the grazing year, with 2023 being one of the toughest on record. While not everyone grass measures, paddock performance should be assessed on an individual basis.

Is it time to reseed an older pasture, or is there paddocks that should be ear marked for stitiching in clover next year?

Soil sampling should also be done over the closed period, and with the help of your farm advisor, a nutrient management plan should be drawn up.

The winter period is also a good time to get any fence repairs complete while stock are off fields, or it can allow you to improve grazing infrastructure overall through new roads, water troughs or further paddock divisions.

With this being the final Grass+ update for 2023, it’s important to remember that much like the ground, farmers themselves need a break and some well deserved downtime.

Farmers

Stephen Frend – Newford herd, Co Galway

Weanlings remain at grass and are very content despite the recent wet weather. They are allocated fresh grass every two days, which is helping with utilisation and preventing any serious damage.

They were weighed in the last few days, with bullocks averaging 370kg and heifers averaging 330kg. They have been vaccinated for IBR before housing in the coming weeks.

The remaining bullocks for finishing have been housed for a number of weeks and are on high DMD silage and 8kg of meal. We hope to draft another 12-15 of these next week, with bullocks averaging around 630-640kg liveweight.

There are just three heifers remaining for finishing, with two of these being Belgian Blue-cross.

System Suckler to finishing

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 550

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 15

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 15

Shaun Diver – Tullamore Farm, Co Offaly

Breeding ewes and replacement lambs are the only stock out at the minute, with all cattle and remaining store lambs now inside. Taking weanlings off ground earlier has allowed for better grass for the ewes, with the out farm in Cloonagh proving essential in the wet weather.

Rams will remain with ewes for another 10 days, with nearly all the replacement ewe lambs now tipped as well. Ewes are in good order despite the wet weather, so we will hold off on giving a fluke dose.

Some dirtier or thinner ewes were dosed a few weeks back as a precaution. Weanlings’ backs will be clipped in the coming days and they will be treated for lice. The cull cows are now separated and on concentrates to finish them.

System Suckler to finishing

Soil Type Variable

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 650

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 16

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 8

Derek O’Donoghue – Salesian College, Co Limerick

The last of the beef cattle were housed two weeks ago, with the only remaining stock outside being the breeding ewes. Rams were turned out on 26 October and will remain with them until 1 December.

Ewes will likely be housed at that point, with lambing due from March. There would be no hope of grazing cattle with current ground conditions.

We will be dung sampling next week to assess worm burden, with cattle receiving a routine fluke dose regardless. Weanlings will get their second shot of Bovipast, which is usually given pre-housing, but with the poor weather we had to house earlier than normal.

Their backs will be clipped next week and they are currently on 2kg ration/head/day with good quality silage.

System Dairy beef/sucklers

Soil Type Free draining

Farm cover (kg/DM/ha) 490

Growth (kg/DM/ha/day) 22

Demand (kg/DM/ha/day) 3